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| | | Major Oscillations |
Maintained by IOC
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| | Context | | | | Understanding the Earth's climate and forecasting its weather are amongst modern science's greatest challenges. Climate and weather are largely determined by the complex and interdependent ocean-atmosphere system. Natural and anthropogenically induced variability in the climate system adds to the challenge of understanding how climate and weather affect and are affected by ocean-atmosphere dynamics (for example, although human activities such as fossil fuel burning and deforestation have altered the natural climate system in ways that are not yet fully understood, they contribute to climate variability as they are strongly linked to globally rising temperatures, increases in severe weather events, and an ever-shifting and currently unpredictable pattern of droughts, floods, famine and disease). Furthermore, these variabilities produce effects that manifest themselves on a timescale that ranges from seasons to millenia. Although the oceans' role in climate and climate variability has long been recognized, unravelling the natural, anthropogenic and regional expressions of this role is just beginning and requires the combined efforts of meteorologists, oceanographers, biologists, glaciologists, and geologists. | | | | Major Oscillations | | | | Major oscillations are an example of natural variability in the global climate system. Major oscillations in the climate system, referred to as climate modes, occur when the normal circulation patterns of the coupled ocean-atmosphere system change abruptly. These deviations can be driven by alterations in atmospheric pressure systems, precipitation patterns, or ocean circulation patterns, and the effects range from changes in normal weather patterns to disturbances in the ocean's normal upwelling patterns and food-web cycle. Climate modes have been identified in nearly every ocean basin region, and normally exhibit a see-saw pattern, swinging from one extreme to the other, over decadal or longer timescales. | | | | |
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